Elisa Barston

Praised for her “glowing sound” and “technical aplomb,” multi-award-winning artist Elisa Barston is the Seattle Symphony’s Principal Second Violin, a position she’s held since the 2006/2007 season. Previously, Barston served as Associate Concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony for nine seasons and was a member of the first violin section of the Cleveland Orchestra.

As a soloist, Barston has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, appearing with the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Taipei Symphony and the English Chamber Orchestra, among many others. She has also been featured on multiple occasions as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, including in performances of Sergei Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto, Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Wolfgang Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and U.S. premieres of two previously unpublished violin concerti by Vivaldi.

An avid chamber musician, Barston was a member of the Corigliano String Quartet. She enjoys playing in chamber series and music festivals including the Seattle Series, Music on the Strait, Concerts in the Barn, and the Seattle Symphony’s Chamber Series.

Barston also loves to teach. She coaches regularly with the Seattle Chamber Music Society Academy as well as at the Japan Seattle Suzuki Institute. In the summer of 2025, Barston coached the violinists of the National Youth Orchestra (NYO2) as they prepared for their Carnegie Hall performance and European tour.

Barston’s principal violin teachers include Josef Gingold, Robert Lipsett, Almita and Roland Vamos, Elaine Skorodin Fohrman, and Betty Haag. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music Cum Laude. At Indiana University, where she earned a Master of Music degree, Barston was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate, the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship and the Starling Foundation Grant.